The Power Of Using Superimposed Chords

At first look, the word “superimposition” may sound like a complex concept… but I assure you, it is easier than it looks!

For a chord to be superimposed on top of another chord means just that! Usually, you’d play one particular chord on your left hand while playing another chord on your right (both at the same time).

Major, Minor, and Dominant Chords

You’d be surprised how many superimposed chords you already know how to play.

In fact, any 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th chord can be considered two chords superimposed on top of one another. You’ve probably heard the term “polychords” to describe these chords as well. Basically, polychords consist of two or more chords that are stacked to create one larger chord.

In order to read the chart above, you will have to know your major scales. I will demonstrate how to use this chart in the key of C major, but feel free to check out my 300-pg course to learn all twelve major scales along with tons of major, minor, dominant, and diminished chords like the ones above!

C major scale

C — D — E — F — G — A — B — C

1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8

If you wanted to play a Cmaj9 chord, you would use the row titled “Major” and the column titled “9.”

Notice the formula for a maj9 chord is 1maj + 5maj.

If you know your major scales, then this will be very simple.

The number in front of “maj” corresponds to the major scale. The “1” of C major is obviously C. So you’d play Cmaj on your left hand. The right hand chord, according to the formula, needs to be the 5maj chord of the scale.

If you already have the course, you will know that one of my favorite progressions is the “7-3-6”.

This is a bit more advanced but certainly relevant for this section.

Instead of playing a major or minor chord on the left hand as I’ve demonstrated above, we will play a tritone on our left hand and a major chord on our right hand.

We’ve covered tritones in other newsletters but here is a brief summary:

1) Tritones are made up of diminished 5th intervals.

From C to Gb would be a tritone interval.

2) Tritones are 3 whole steps apart.

C to D (1 W) … D to E (2 W) … E to Gb (3 W)

3) Tritones split the piano in half.

From C to Gb is the same distance as Gb to C. Gb is exactly the middle of C and the octave C.

4) Tritones also create the shell of dominant chords (3 + b7).

C + Gb is the shell of an Ab7 chord (Ab + C + Eb + Gb). C is the 3rd of Ab and Gb is the b7.

There are twelve tritones but really only six unique ones because they start to repeat. Let me explain…

C to Gb

Db to G

D to Ab

Eb to A

E to Bb

F to B

— repeating starts —

Gb to C

G to Db

Ab to D

A to Eb

Bb to E

B to F

* Notice that the bottom sets of tritones are the same as the top but backwards.

Now… back to the 7-3-6 progression:

Normally, in the key of Db, I’d play a 7-3-6 like this:

Cmin11 —> F7 (#9#5) —> Bbmin9

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

For the F7 (#9#5) altered chord, you can actually substitute the shell of F7. Remember, we are calling a “shell” the 3rd and b7th notes of any 7th chord. So the shell of F7 would be A and Eb. This is also called an upper structure voicing.

You should also know from above that A + Eb is a tritone!

So… on your left hand, play the A + Eb tritone.

On your right hand, simply play a Dbmaj chord (or the major chord of the key that you’re in). Wasn’t that simple?

Moving on…

Since the A + Eb can be played either way (with A on top or bottom), let’s switch our left hand to Eb + A instead. I like this sound better.

Left hand = Eb + A.

Now, here’s the trick with any 7-3 progression. We’ve covered the superimposed substitution for the F7 (#9#5) above. But what about the Cmin11 chord right before it? Can that be substituted?

It sure can!

Just take the: Eb + A /// Dbmaj and move it up one-half step.

E + Bb on left /// Dmaj on your right hand. This will take the place of your Cmin11 chord.

… So just to recap:

What used to be:

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

Is now:

D major superimposed on top of (E+Bb) tritone

Db major superimposed on top of (Eb + A) tritone

* For the Bbmin9 chord, I would change the right hand to create:

Ab maj over Bb bass.

Here’s an audio example of how this progression should sound:

Concluding…

We didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to superimposing chords on top of one another.

Yes, I covered major, minor, and dominant chords but there are series of other combinations that we couldn’t get to because of limits on space in this e-mail.

Also, considering that the holidays are quickly approaching, GospelKeys 202is a wonderful gift for any aspiring Gospel musician. In fact, since chords and progressions are used across different genres of music, there are tons of chords and voicings in GospelKeys 202for R&B, jazz, and blues musicians!

Do you know what a “2-5-1” or “3-6-2-5-1“ progression is? Or perhaps the famous 12-bar blues chord progression? In this piano course, you will not only learn how to play gospel, blues, and jazz progressions, but how to recognize them in songs. In addition, you will learn the simple techniques to playing these progressions, hymns, and songs in all 12 major keys! … Enjoy learning:

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Hi, I'm Jermaine Griggs, founder of this site. We teach people how to express themselves through the language of music. Just as you talk and listen freely, music can be enjoyed and played in the same way... if you know the rules of the "language!" I started this site at 17 years old in August 2000 and more than a decade later, we've helped literally millions of musicians along the way. Enjoy!

i don’t know if there is anything like pentagonious tritone. if there is please could you help break it down. i would love to know about it .thanks and God bless you. remember the more you give, the more you get. never get tired of doing God’s work.

I am very grateful to God 4 creatin nd givin u d heart to share. I neva had a heart 2 share knowledge bt nw after learnini 4rm u, am havin a second thot cos d more i teach d better i undestand. All d same am calld a pianist 2day cos several years ago i stumbld on ur path.